Sunrise In The Land Of Milk And Honey (CD)

Cracker

Amoeba Review

John Schacht 05/15/2010

The re-emergence of Camper Van Beethoven in the mid-aughts has overshadowed the resurgence of David Lowery’s other band, Cracker. With 2006’s Greenland and now Sunrise, Lowery and chief co-writer Johnny Hickman have turned in two records rivaling their 1993 high-water mark, Kerosene Hat. Always a clever culture observer with a keen grasp of history, Lowery comments on the new eco-survivalists in the gorgeous minor-key pop cut “Turn On, Tune In, Drop Out,” worries about the teetering nuclear state of Pakistan in “We All Shine a Light” (John Doe guest vocals), decries the fading promise of the American dream in the title track, and on “Yalla Yalla” captures the mindset of shell-shocked Iraq War vets: “I been through Basra/Fucked up Faluja/Sadr City Mosul/There weren’t no chocolates/No pretty flowers/Just kill them all or we die.” Sunrise tilts more punk than previous releases, highlighted by a 90-second blast of Buzzcocks punk-pop, “Hand Me My Inhaler,” and a high-rpm ode to the 80s American punk scene of Dez Cadenza-era Black Flag and Dead Kennedys riots. The band doesn’t abandon its country roots, though, as chief Drive-by Trucker Patterson Hood duets with Lowery on a booze-soaked ode to questionable acquaintances (“Friends”), and the Mark Linkous co-write “Darling One” captures the Sparklehorse leader’s inimitable melancholy and a ripping Hickman solo. In short, the record is a neat crystallization of all things Cracker, and though the Sunrise may not apply to these trying times, it does to Lowery and company.